Fuck.
DATHAL
I ignoredAxel’s raised eyebrow as I climbed onto the back of his bike outside of Nick’s house. He didn’t need to be a mind reader to know why I’d gone there last night.
Even though we couldn’t talk on the way back to his cottage, I felt the weight of his concern as if he’d said the words aloud. He was right to wonder what I was doing with Nick. Despite my insistence that it was casual, that I was just enjoying myself while I was here, we both knew I was lying.
The desire to see Nick as soon as we stepped foot back in this realm wasn’t casual.
The way my magic responded to him, seeking him out like it’d found another home, certainly wasn’t casual. And neither was the intense satisfaction I felt at seeing another one of those links disappear because of what we’d done.
What we’d shared.
I wanted to be with him now. Leaving his sleep-warm body had taken every ounce of ingrained responsibility. Only my sense of duty to my home and my people, my position as a guard of the Fae Realm, had forced me to get out of that bed.
I should be worried.
Thanks to the quick access granted to us by the high court, the information Axel had recovered from Melhak’s mind was promising. I felt it in my blood and bones. What had at first seemed like an impossible task to find out who was responsible for selling Blue Alhuirn now had a clear path. A possible end in sight.
I should feel the satisfaction of all loose ends coming together, but with each new lead we uncovered, the curl of dread in my gut got bigger and bigger, wrapping around my insides until I felt like I might drown.
I didn’t understand how this had happened.
Nick had been in my life for a total of nine days.
Nine days.
I hardly knew anything about him, and yet when I was with him, it felt like coming home. Like if only his magic was allowed to flow freely, it would entwine with my own and be the most glorious thing imaginable.
I wanted that with a hunger that threatened to eclipse everything else.
As was suddenly evident when Axel pulled to a stop in front of his cottage and turned his engine off.
I’d managed to miss the journey.
Chlah Ferath.
Gabriel and Max stood on the doorstep, waiting. I wasn’t surprised to see them. Max was the lead on this whole thing, but he wasn’t the one Lady Sarhin had granted access through the gateway.
Only Gabriel would be accompanying me when we went back through.
I climbed off Axel’s bike and walked over to them, Axel joining me a moment later.
No one said anything about where we’d come from, and I suspected that they already knew. I pushed all that to the back of my mind, mentally pulling my guard persona around me as if I wore the leather itself.
I had a job to do now and couldn’t afford to be anything other than professional.
“Gabriel, Max.” I nodded in greeting. “Do you have all the information we need?”
Gabriel pointed at the rucksack on his back. “I have files of all the witches sent from the paranormal police to be tried and sentenced in the Fae Realm.”
“Good. It should be a relatively simple task to match them with prison records.” If the fae had a better working relationship with the paranormal police, then maybe we wouldn’t have ended up here. But it wasn’t my place to question the actions of the high court. “Do you know anything more about how the hunter died in your jails?”
“No.” Max ran a hand over the back of his neck. “Jake and his partner are looking into it. At least we’ve convinced the prison authorities that it wasn’t actually Gabriel who went to visit Finch, so they aren’t clamouring for his arrest anymore.”
Gabriel winced, and I noticed the shadows under his eyes. Couldn’t be easy coming under suspicion again so soon after Tombs tried to frame him. “Are you ready?” he asked, eyeing my clothes that looked exactly like they’d spent the night on Nick’s floor.
“Give me five minutes to change and we’ll go through.”
